We all start at the same spot: a blank space--and with a common
goal: to fill that space. But the path we choose from there is
completely individual, as individual, in fact, as the mind itself.
What occupies that distance between nothing and something is the
mysterious science we call creativity.

Funny how the mind works. The visions that come in like a flood,
the blocks that temporarily immobilize, the defeats that send us
back to the proverbial drawing board, the triumphs of fitting the
pieces of the puzzle together, the satisfaction that comes with
knowing something is right. The mind lurches, stalls, sprints,
strolls, stifles, flows. We so often ask "What do you
think?" while neglecting to ask the more interesting question,
"How do you think?"

In business environments, creativity has traditionally been
considered an anomaly. At worst, it's a sign of
unprofessionalism; at best, it's a burst of energy confined to
specific blocks of time. Even Webster's is remarkably stale in
its definition of creativity: "artistic or intellectual
inventiveness," it tersely summarizes. These perceptions fail
to satisfy. The beauty of creativity is that it overflows the
boundaries we set for it. To anyone who has been called upon to
create, the means are infinitely more interesting than the
definition and at times even more interesting than the end.

For modern-day creative genuises Joe Moya and Joe Raia, owners
and founders of Joe Designer Inc., a product development and
graphic communications firm in New York City, creativity is the
very foundation of their business and the makeup of their souls.
With their team of illustrators and industrial and graphic
designers, they've developed products ranging from handmixers
and toys to street-hockey blades and video game controllers for
corporations such as Betty Crocker, Toy Biz, Kodak, Viacom
Retail/Paramount, 4Kidz and IVY Hill/Warner Media Services.
"Being creative," says Moya, "is kind of the
ultimate thing here."

Being creative. It's an overwhelming call, for sure. But for
entrepreneurs, what could be more fitting to their constitution and
more, well, good, old-fashioned fun? We've pinned the Joes down
and done exploratory surgery on their creative processes,
uncovering some fascinating and practical insights into their
theory of creativity--so you can learn to unleash yours.

In The Beginning...

. . . there were cartoons. Moya and Raia, both 32, believe their
creativity did not start with entrepreneurship but with their
childhood influences, which ranged from Bugs Bunny to MTV. Early
on, they learned how to reconcile the absurdity of the media with
the normalcy of suburbia. "We sort of mixed these things
together, the mundane with the fantastic," says Raia.
"The way we grew up, being on the cusp of Generation X, we
acquired a skewed sensibility, which is a big catalyst of our
creative ways."

That knack for coalescing the contradictory serves them to this
day. "A lot of times, we're combining different thoughts,
different patterns, different theories, classic elements from the
past with futurist-type thinking," says Moya.

They're pretty good at combining childhood with adulthood as
well: They're still cartoon watchers and comic book readers,
and proud of it. Raia and Moya aren't quick to throw out any
sources of inspiration, whether past or present, silly or
sublime.

It's far from a frivolous move. Isn't childhood the
prime time of all creativity, that span of time in which
make-believe is a part of daily life and in which each person
believes he or she is inherently creative--a dancer, a painter, a
singer, an illustrator, a writer? What's so different about
creating the ultimate sand castle and creating an innovative
product prototype?

The Play Must Go On

The setting: a Soho office. The players: Moya, Raia and five of
their employees.

The office is, by Moya's definition, very casual, very hip.
Since both Moya and Raia came from corporate backgrounds, they have
very intentionally rebelled against any semblance of corporate
order. Walls are taboo. "If someone wants to say
something," reasons Moya, "they can just yell it across
the room."

"There's a little more respect when principals are
involved in daily operations instead of hidden behind the glass
doors, behind the oak desk, overseeing everyone like Big
Brother," says Raia. "We get more respect from our staff
because we'll roll up our sleeves instead of pointing the
finger and asking someone else to do something."

"We let our staff know we're here not as their bosses,
but as people," adds Moya. "That makes it a little easier
for them to think freely."

Moya and Raia set the mood with atypical office accessories that
encourage the all-work, all-play attitude. Moya admits the
atmosphere is more nursery school than boardroom, complete with
video games and a 68-foot track of Tyco race cars. Employees gather
not around the water cooler but around the ever-popular Nerf hoop.
No framed pastel landscapes in this office. Blackboards, bulletin
boards and erasable drawing boards are scattered along the walls,
just in case someone is struck by an idea mid-stroll. "I
don't want to see blackboards empty," says Raia.
"Even if it's a hangman, those are still ideas; you're
still using your mind. At least you're not sitting there with a
Walkman, typing on your computer."

Casual is more than a fashion statement here. "We've
been in the structured corporate environment. We've worn the
ties and sat in the cubicles," says Moya. "And that's
really stagnant. This casual environment is about letting ourselves
and our employees breathe."

This casualness frees employees up to reveal their own
personalities. "The way they dress, the music they listen to,
the way they speak--everyone's a little different," Moya
says. "And in not only permitting that but allowing it to
flourish, it helps people be themselves and bring unique ideas to
the company."

In fact, traditional formalities such as job titles are banned.
"People are treated equally," says Moya. "There are
no labels, no lines drawn, so there's less pressure on people
to impress us and other staff members."

The time employees of other companies spend schmoozing, Joe
Designer's employees spend bonding. "I encourage our
graphic designer to walk into the model shop and find out
what's going on at the milling machine," says Raia.
"I don't want someone to not understand the different
principles and procedures. I like the idea of everyone knowing
everything."

Remember The Sponge

Unfortunately, many businesses tend to drop the creativity ball
early in the game--when scoping for clients. "Instead of
[just] sending out letters and cold-calling, you have to use all
types of techniques," says Moya.

"We started a business in a tenacious town, and we have to
be tenacious to get more work," says Raia. "So the
question is `How are we going to distinguish ourselves from the
person next door?' "

Moya and Raia e-mail and fax like madmen. "We do
illustrations of each other," says Moya. "So if we've
met a prospective client, we'll send an illustration of
ourselves saying `Hey, where are you? Why don't you call?'
"

"Just by faxing illustrations, Joe Designer is constantly
going across the desks of big CEOs," says Raia. "And when
we sent out our two-year promotion, it was an expandable sponge.
It's just a little twist to make people remember us.
They'll get the printed calendars [from other companies], and
that's very nice, but people are going to remember the
sponge."

Let There Be Light

Funneling broad creativity into a specific mission--beginning an
actual project--is the stage that usually overwhelms most people.
Moya and Raia take the first step forward in this practical realm
with research. "It's about knowing the market you're
designing for," says Moya.

"We familiarize ourselves with market trends, the past
history of the product, the past history of the trends of that
product," says Raia. "We research by flipping through
magazines. We pin articles, photos, everything up on the walls and
familiarize the whole team with what the history is and what we
want to achieve. We really try to fixate ourselves on the
future--on, say, what a handmixer would look like 10 years from
today."

Moya and Raia's idea of research is far from the dreary
reality of homework. It's more of a mindset, in which creative
juices flow through daily life. You observe the blending of colors
in a sunset, the way a bird uses its wings, the perfect rippling of
a wave. When you hit this plane of hyperconsciousness, knowledge
happens.

"It's really not so much a sit-down-at-the-library type
of thing; it's just about keeping an open mind to different
elements, things you can use in your design," says Raia.
"You can apply architecture to a product or a product to
architecture. There are beautiful things in nature that you can
apply to products, especially with form. When we were developing
[products with soft, rounded contours, such as the Betty Crocker
Handmixer], we borrowed contours off everything from nature to
classic cars. And the steelwork, the bridgework in our city, the
way it's mechanically fastened, just by scaling it down, it
adds great detail to products."

When they feel led to do so, Moya and Raia postpone the
hard-core research phase. "Sometimes it's better to come
in with fresh ideas and not be affected by what's out
there," says Moya. "So we may start off a project with
some brainstorming sessions and rough concepts based just on our
initial thoughts, and do the research after. Then we're not
jaded by what we've already seen."

In Session

The brainstorming session--that awe-inspiring forum of
free-flowing thoughts--is the birthplace of some of the most
revolutionary changes mankind has seen. It's where anything is
possible, unfettered by earthly boundaries. Or, as Moya puts it,
"it's where Joe and I bang ideas off each other."

At Joe Designer, banging ideas off others is a big deal. Care is
taken in the details. The key element is music--sometimes blues,
often jazz. "The dysfunctional notes in jazz have a lot to do
with how we think," says Moya. "It's not four-four
time."

And it helps to have plenty of people. "Everybody is
involved [in brainstorming sessions]. We bring in everybody, from
the bookkeeper to the office manager, because they see things
completely differently than we do," says Raia. "We may be
a little too far out in left field and need that middle-of-the-road
thinking."

The actual brainstorming sessions start slowly and, like a
train, build momentum. Moya and Raia brief the staff on the project
and its goals. Then they divide the project into different
categories or characteristics; for example, a telephone will be
divided into its physical elements: the mouthpiece, the earpiece,
the base and the cord.

People will randomly go up to the blackboard and sketch or
doodle something under the different sections, or maybe write down
key words that might influence the design or spark an idea.
"We try to break down the boundaries of stagnancy," says
Raia. "It inhibits people's thinking if they're afraid
to throw something out that's in left field because the boss
might not like it. I want to see every little cocktail napkin they
draw on. I want to see everything because the smallest ideas are
usually the best."

When lulls hit, rather than plowing through, "sometimes
everyone will branch off and come up with some ideas, play with
Tyco cars or video games, and then we bring it back together and
work as a team," says Moya. "There's a lot of
breathing room."

Even having minds like the Joes, however, doesn't ward off
all cases of scarcity in such sessions. "That constant need to
invent new ideas is hard at times," says Raia, who points out
that it's important not to limit brainstorming to the session
itself but to partake daily, as naturally as you breathe. In other
words, the brainstorming's not over until the fat client
sings.

Moya is always prepared for an idea to surface: "I'll
wake up, have a pad of paper by the bed, turn on the light and
start sketching. That happens often. And it happens many times when
I'm sitting on the subway going to work. I'll see something
and say `Where's my sketch pad?' "

The Rut (And Other Enemies)

The actual production may seem anticlimactic after a rowdy,
Tyco-break-filled, banging-ideas-off-each-other brainstorming
session. "The most exciting part [of product development] is
that brainstorming session," says Raia. "Because after
you come up with your concepts of what this thing should do, then
you have to actually become practical, put it down on paper and
make it work."

What inevitably follows, says Raia, is "a long, long
process--the development of the piece and then figuring out the
engineering end of it. We work on how this thing will actually go
together, and then how to make it better for less money. It's
the struggle that's involved with thinking of the
practical."

"And sometimes you hit a dead end," admits Moya.

So many of us are confounded when we have nowhere else to go
mentally, which is odd considering when we hit a dead end
literally, we know exactly what to do. We just turn around and take
another route. It works the same way with creativity. "You may
be looking at something the wrong way," says Raia. "You
need to take a step back, go around it and hit it from a different
angle."

"There's not one way to solve a problem," says
Moya. "There are many different approaches you can take. So
just going back and reexamining does help when you're in a rut.
Maybe there's a call for going back to brainstorming.
Brainstorming is not just a onetime thing--it occurs constantly
throughout the process. It's a constant reexamination of
ideas."

Sometimes the solution lies down another avenue. "When you
think you've proved the point or solved the problem, you may
then look and see merit in other designs. So you pick and choose
from other concepts you've done, and it pushes you in another
direction," says Raia. "You may think you're in a
rut, but you may already have [figured] the way out. It could just
be hidden."

Other times, the right way is to work with what you already have
in a fresh way. Consider this the "stand on your head"
method to creativity. "Maybe you just need to take your
drawing and turn it upside down," says Raia. "Just
looking at something in a different light helps. One little thing
is [sometimes] all it takes to spark [your creativity again]. It
could be as simple as a coffee stain on your drawing."

"And that may be the next graphic vision," adds Moya.
"You never know."

The major enemies of creativity? "Just doing the
obvious," says Raia.

"Being closed-minded," agrees Moya. "If
you're stuck in a rut, sometimes it's because you're
just doing the same thing over and over."

So what do the Joes do in those extreme moments, when
they're completely drained, dried up, not another thought in
their heads?

"Nerf hoop," says Raia.

"Yeah, Nerf hoop," agrees Moya. "Seriously, it
does help."

Thinking Ahead

One thing you should know about Moya and Raia: They are obsessed
with the future. "We have this fixation," says Raia.
" `How are we going to evolve? What is going to happen
tomorrow? How are we going to link the present with the
future?' We think about the future with new technologies, new
ways of molding and manufacturing, new methods of client relations.
We're constantly trying to determine what's going to happen
tomorrow and the day after and down the road, and what we're
going to need to do there."

Their fascination with the future makes perfect sense. Creative
types realize the future holds infinite possibilities unrestrained
by today's conventions. Creativity, like the future, is greater
than Moya or Raia or you or me. The hugeness of it naturally
inspires awe, and the awe naturally inspires creativity.

Moya and Raia are, in the final judgment, idea men. If the
future builds it, they will come. And they'll take a lot of
people with them. "We like leaving people with something new
on their minds," says Raia. "Anybody can put a couch up
against the wall, but to turn it on a 30 degree angle, put this
little thing behind it . . . just adding a little twist to
something, that's all creativity means."

Tips From The Joes

Be like a child: Childhood is the breeding ground of creative
thinking.

Break down the barriers between you and your employees.
Corporate stuffiness is so '80s.

Keep your eyes open. Great ideas are all around you, waiting to
be discovered.

Ask everyone you know for ideas. You never know--your
mild-mannered bookkeeper might just turn out to be a creative
dynamo.

When ideas aren't flowing, don't force them. A
five-minute break for some breathing space is better than an hour
of stagnancy.

Get a fresh perspective: Take the concept and turn it upside
down.

Play hard--recreation helps stimulate thinking.

Bulls-eye!

According to Juanita Weaver, a Takoma Park, Maryland,
creativity consultant, Joe Designer is right on target when it
comes to the following strategies:

Fostering a safe and open environment for employees.
"A major block to creativity is the internalized voice of
judgment that says this can't be done; if you do it, something
awful will happen; that's ridiculous; it's stupid; it would
never work; it doesn't matter anyway," says Weaver.
"When that happens, we can't even get a little idea out.
The critical thing in creativity is to suspend this voice of
judgment during the initial phase when you're trying to come up
with something new. Keep it positive. Just let go and
proceed."

As a business owner, Weaver says it's important to
understand, as do Joe Moya and Joe Raia, that while you can come in
on the next stage and select, sort, evaluate and then implement
these new ideas, it's in that beginning phase that you just
have to move from impulse to impulse and trust your first
thoughts.

Not trying to force creativity to happen. Especially in
brainstorming meetings, says Weaver, there needs to be some time in
which each group member goes away alone and processes, and then
comes back to the group. This alone time is an important component
of creativity.

Having fun. "[Moya and Raia] have the courage to
play," says Weaver. "We're trained to think
[business] is so serious, and that shuts us down in terms of
playing around and combining things in new ways. A sense of humor
and fun opens us up again."

Meeting Of The Minds

Being creative means starting small, says Juanita Weaver, a
Takoma Park, Maryland, creativity consultant. "Go about it
gradually, even if you only change one thing, such as the way you
hold a meeting."

Weaver suggests four ideas you can implement to get the creative
juices flowing in your meetings:

1. Give your employees five minutes to come up with five careers
they'd pursue if they weren't limited by external factors.
"This exercise elicits a lot of energy," says Weaver,
"and you can take this energy back to your meeting."

2. Have employees take a minute to contemplate an issue, then
pick up magazines and tear out any images that appeal to them. Have
them relate these images to the issue at hand. "It's about
using images to tap into your subconscious," says Weaver.

3. Have everyone pick an object in the room and ask them to
write three poems about it: a haiku, a poem as if they knew nothing
about the object, and one relating the object to something from
their childhood. "This shows that you can look at one thing
many ways and find different levels of meaning in it," says
Weaver.

4. Pass out name tags, and allow your employees to make up their
own names. "Their names could be, for example, Queen of the
Nile, Down in the Dumps or Juanita the Great," says Weaver.
"It changes the energy and opens the mind up a bit."